Tidal will be free to try for 12 days starting on Christmas

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,636   +199
Staff member

Tidal is ringing in the New Year the right way. The streaming music provider on Friday announced it will be offering a 12-day free trial of its Hi-Fi and Premium tiers beginning December 25, 2017, and running through January 5, 2018.

Free trial offers aren’t typically newsworthy. In fact, you can score a free 30-day trial of Tidal as we speak. What’s different about Tidal’s upcoming offer, however, is the fact that you’ll only need to submit an e-mail address to qualify – no credit card required. Most trial offers request a valid credit card so they can charge you for the service when you forget to cancel.

As part of Tidal’s free trial, users will have access to the full platform via the web and on mobile devices.

During the preview period and into 2018, Tidal is planning to release a cornucopia of original content including interviews, curated playlists, tour documentaries and more. The full schedule can be found in this Google Docs spreadsheet.

Tidal’s 12-day preview is well-timed as it starts on Christmas Day, right at the height of the annual app rush due to holiday gift-giving. What’s key here is that users won’t be required to enter a credit card which usually serves as a major hurdle for young people (but with some sweet talking, I’m willing to bet that kids can convince their parents to let them sign up for a subscription afterwards).

The offer is also attractive for those that have been interested in trying lossless high fidelity audio quality. This is what’s tempting me the most…

Lead image via Sam Hodgson, The New York Times

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Last ditch effort to stave off going under.

Not enough interest in a service like this. I think most audiophiles like this would rather just download flac copies of the music they want. IMO. Anyone like this rather stream it? Let me hear it....
this. it is hard to find truly lossless files sometimes from my experience. just because its flac doesnt mean its of the highest bitrate unfortunately. tidal needs to cut their price waaaay down though. thats one reason why I never tried it. also because you cant listen to anything without giving them your credit card. wtf is that?!
 
Spotify uses (I believe) 320 Kbit OGG files. In my opinion, it sounds terrible. It always has (to my ears) and I'm not alone in this view. Now I'm not sure how an OGG files should sound compared to an MP3 or ACC files at that bitrate, but what would make me believe that Tidal sounds truly great? I don't know what Google Play Music uses but it sounds a hell of a lot better than Spotify. Not sure where I'm going with this. Guess I'm just saying that I don't know if I can believe that their music sounds that much better than the competition?
 
Spotify uses (I believe) 320 Kbit OGG files. In my opinion, it sounds terrible. It always has (to my ears) and I'm not alone in this view. Now I'm not sure how an OGG files should sound compared to an MP3 or ACC files at that bitrate, but what would make me believe that Tidal sounds truly great? I don't know what Google Play Music uses but it sounds a hell of a lot better than Spotify. Not sure where I'm going with this. Guess I'm just saying that I don't know if I can believe that their music sounds that much better than the competition?

if you were to do a blind test you won't note any differences between 320k MP3 and FLAC.
 
To be perfectly blunt, with this service's "owners", being the likes of Kanye West and Jay-z, they couldn't pay me to listen to that crap. So no, I won't be listening to a bunch of hip-hop sewage throughout the 12 days of Christmas. In fact, I'll be doing everything I possibly can to avoid it.
 
Why does that title sound familiar?

On the 1st day of Christmas Tidal sent to me....
On the 12th day of Christmas Tidal sent to me....
 
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